


Absolution

by CrystalRebellion



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Healing, Lotura Week 2018, Lotura is still strong, Rift, Salvation, rift sex, riftsex, season6, the castleship still exists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 15:15:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15122177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalRebellion/pseuds/CrystalRebellion
Summary: The climactic battle has ended, but Allura is left with doubts before the Paladins decide to close the rift. In a last attempt to reach out to Lotor, Allura risks everything to go back for him. (Post-S6)  (S6 Spoilers) (Lotor x Allura) (Rift sex is real.)





	Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the Lotura Discord Server for their unending love and support. This season hurt a lot of people, but we have all come back together, and it means a lot to me to be a member of one of the most accepting and loving groups of people out there.

 

Dark.

Allura paused in her pacing, deep in the center castleship’s night cycle.  Despite the innate darkness of her chamber, a shattering light pierced outside.  She regarded it sadly.

The rift pulsed.

_Beckoned._

There had been substantial discussion about closing it, but Allura couldn’t bring herself to do it just yet.  She kept hoping _he_ would appear, madness or not.

_Nightmare._

It had only been six vargas since they had left the quintessence field, but it felt like six thousand.  The Paladins had collapsed into – what she hoped would be a peaceful rest – but she could not.  She hadn’t even bothered to remove her armor since the fight.

Her stomach was sick.  Her heart felt heavy.  Her mind raced.

_I never knew how much I wanted it until I lost it all._

She exhaled.  Allura’s entire body was numb, her blood felt cold and though she couldn’t remember when she had last eaten, the bile felt fresh in her throat.

“I’m a disaster,” she murmured, resuming her pacing, pausing as the mice scampered over to her.  They chirped loudly and she blinked.

“What's that?”  The chittering grew in volume and Allura’s eyes widened.  “Of course not!”  Her eyes looked back to the rift as they continued to speak.  “I cannot-” She frowned when the space pets continued to talk over her.  Suddenly, they fell silent and Allura stared intently out the glass.

“Do you really think so?”  Her eyes slid back to the rodents.  The largest one just crossed his tiny paws across his chest and stared at her.

For the first time in the quintant, Allura felt a warmth spear her chest.  The faintest spark of hope tentatively kindled, but she dared not fan the flames.

“And… what if you’re right, what if he is still there… but he’s still… like _that_?”

The exasperated noise the mouse made was all Allura needed.  Her will steeled and she felt a call to arms unlike any she had ever felt before.

“You’re right.  Sometimes we have to fight for the things we want.  I must go.”  She snatched her helm from the table.

Allura stormed from her chambers, moving down the darkened passageways of the castleship that she knew so well.

_I **will** fix this,_ she vowed solemnly as she started the lift to Blue Lion.

_I will **save** you._

She closed her eyes in prayer, reaching out to whatever Sages in Oriande might hear her call.

_This **feels** right, but I don’t **know** anything anymore._

She opened her eyes as she dropped into Blue.

“Without knowledge to guide me, I only have my heart.  It hasn’t failed me yet,” she murmured as the vehicle sprang to life.  “And if I’m wrong… perhaps a fate within the Quintessence Field is a fitting punishment for my foolishness.”

* * *

 

“Allura!  Is that you, do you copy?”

She glanced to the light that blinked when the castle hailed her.

“Allura, Blue Lion has launched, are you there?”

“I am, Keith,” she said calmly.

“What are you doing!?  Where are-”

Allura said nothing.  No answer was needed.  Keith paused mid-sentence as he realized the precise answer to his question.

“We’re coming with you.  Hang tight.”

“No, Keith.  I need to do this myself.  I… _please_ ,” she begged.  Allura couldn’t articulate why, but something inside the rift was _calling_ her, and her alone.

“…If we don’t see you in a varga, we’re coming in.”

“Good.  You may need to retrieve the Blue Lion,” she said softly.

“Allura… are you... certain about this?  We should have just closed that rift and-”

“I must try.”

Silence.

“Come back safe.”

Allura had no words to offer him a she approached the vibrant energy source. She wasn’t sure what awaited her on the horizon, nor could she promise her return. Quintessence pulsed from the gaping hole in space.  The place between realities.

_Perhaps there exists one where we could have been._

She closed her eyes sadly, a desolate smile tracing her lips.  One shot left.  Everything she had ever known and loved hinged on a single thought, a weak prayer, and a shattered heart.

_Please let me be strong enough to see this through, no matter what._

She pressed her palms forward and the lion sprang to life, leaping through the barrier between time and reality.

White light flooded the interior of the cockpit and her screens illuminated to a near-blinding degree.  She dialed the display down and her eyes looked around the void, desperately searching for a silhouette.

Only emptiness met her.

Panic fueled her as she fired her thrusters, searching for any sign of Sincline.

_Stars, no._

Her heart sank.  The numbness that had been vibrating through her returned in full force and she glanced to her hands shaking in a near-violent spasm on the controls.  Allura’s vision blurred from the welling of saline, but she couldn’t feel the streaks as they flooded her cheeks.

The scream that left her lips caught her by surprise and ripped her soul to shreds, but there was no will left to hold it back, no desire to temper her agony, no propriety to demand practicality or formality.

_Alone._

_Again._

As she slumped back in her chair, catching her breath,she realized it hadn’t been an animalistic echo of pain.  Her cry was more than just fury at a broken promise.

It had been his _name_.

A breath.

_A heartbeat._

As if answering her summon, a grey shadow appeared on her screen.

Her stomach twisted into her throat as she pushed Blue toward the limp shape of the ominous ship floating in space.  Allura stared.

It didn’t move, and the princess hesitated briefly.

“I’ve come this far.  I… I must see this through.”  She pulled up the command panel and typed in coordinates.

Rising from her chair, she pressed her palm against the dash and laid her bayard on the seat.

“Goodbye, Blue,” she murmured appreciatively before evacuating her cockpit.  The lion’s eyes flashed gold before it turned and homed on the coordinates she had given it.

Allura floated in the void between realities and watched as her vessel returned to the Castle of Lions.  She nodded once and locked her gaze on the sundered warship before her.

Her jets fired briefly and she floated through the field toward the remnants of a broken battle.  A shattered heart. …A lost dream.

_I had dared to hope._

If Allura were being honest with herself – she didn’t expect to find anything inviting inside.  It was possible that she might be able to recover the ship, but a part of her didn’t want to leave the field.

She braced for the worst, unsure of which would be more terrible; an empty cockpit or a sundered body.  She exhaled, steeled herself one last time and popped the hatch to the bay.  It closed behind her and she paused at a nearby panel to stabilize the oxygen before making her way to the cockpit.

As the door swished closed behind her, she froze.

Nothing had prepared her for the sight before her.

“Lotor,” she whispered, her eyes wide with horror, studying him slumped in a corner. 

_He was alive._

At least in some small capacity. He lay on his back, an arm draped over his chest, half-propped against the wall.  His eyes were blown wide open, slender pupils honed on her lethally as his chest rose and fell with ragged breathing.

She studied him closely, her heart hammering in her throat.  The bitterness in his gaze nearly undid her and she watched as his fingers – _claws_ – flexed briefly where they rested at the sight of her.

“A…” He shifted slightly, his eyes wide and unblinking, utterly lost and filled with an unholy rage.

Allura found herself regretting sending Blue away so hastily.  Everything about the Emperor before her frightened her.  There was nothing innate about the gentle man she had come to know.  The explorer she had traveled with. …The man she had kissed.  There was nothing intellectual left in his eyes.  Even a calculating coldness would have been welcome in comparison.

She dropped to her knees beside the pilot chair across the room from him.

“You… sent… it… away…”

His words came in raspy gasps, his hair sprawled over his shoulders and fanning out behind him in utter disarray.

“My lion?”  She blinked, surprised he had seen that.

“You… aren’t,” he paused, drawing in a ragged breath as his voice returned to him slowly.  “…leaving.”

Allura’s blood chilled further, unsure if he was making a threat or an observation.  She swallowed nervously.

While she had not known the man terribly long and couldn’t say with any certainty that she knew him well, the person before her was utterly foreign.

“No,” she affirmed gently.

He just exhaled shakily.

“Good.”

Her eyes widened.

“Good?”  She blinked.  Was he truly relieved to see her?  Perhaps they could they mend-

“You can _die_ here, too,” he hissed out.

Her heart stopped.

“You don’t mean that,” she murmured, leaning forward and placing her palms on the floor.  With slow, deliberate movements, she crawled toward his prone form.  She marked how his eyes narrowed further on her, but she did not still her approach.

“You think I _care_?” The words spat across the room sundered her hope, a manic laughter echoing in its wake, causing Allura to flinch.  She paused a moment, hesitating.

“I don’t… I don’t know, Lotor.  I don’t… I don’t know anything… anymore.  …Perhaps I never did,” she admitted, her brow drawing together.  He released a bark of a laugh in response, leaning his head back against the wall behind him.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Allura’s heart shattered with her patience and she felt her temper flare.

“Did it ever though? You got what you wanted!  Your _unlimited quintessence!_ ” She gestured around her to the void outside.  “How _happy_ are you?”

Lotor remained quiet for a moment, considering his answer.

“The only time I’ve ever been happy,” he paused to catch his breath.  “Was when I worked alongside you.”

“…what?”  Her anger dissolved instantly as she watched his weakened form, his breathing labored.

“You… were… an unforeseen complication.”

She flinched but remained silent as he gathered his thoughts.

“I needed… to protect those Alteans, Allura.  I needed… I tried. …So much…  I needed your help.  I didn’t expect…”

His eyes popped wide and wild on her when she closed the distance between them and came to sit beside him.

“I can’t make sense of what you did.  Perhaps someday I will,” she murmured, eyeing the unhinged man before her.

Allura hesitantly reached for him, her fingers trembling.  She ached to touch him, to be near him.

Lotor responded to the reach with a howl of primal emotion somewhere between pain and fear, snatching her wrist out of thin air before it got to him.  Allura practically felt her body lift off the ground at the gesture, her own cry of surprise leaving her lips.

“You’re hurting me!”

His pupils shrank further and his eyes widened at her words.

“Seems fair to share, doesn’t it, _Princess_?  That’s just how _everything_ works.”

Tears sprang to the corners of her eyes, unable to process what state he had descended into.  Her heart hammered in her chest.  She closed her eyes and braced – _he’s going to kill me_.

There was no sense of the softness that he had once had, he was utterly deranged.

She could practically feel the quintessence around them as it swirled and settled through her veins, her fear escalating.  _Galra._   The word hammered in her mind. Her pulse raced, adrenaline coursing.   _I should have feared him all along.  He’s Gal_ -

Allura froze, opening her eyes as she realized what she was thinking.  _He’s also **Altean**_ , she reasoned, troubled by how quickly her mind had jumped to her paranoia.  Something ticked in the back of her mind, just a breath away from her.

She studied his eyes closely, the sensation of dread crawling over her skin.  There was information just out of her reach and she could _taste_ it.

“Lotor,” she gasped, her eyes drawing to the blue glow forming between her wrist and his palm.  His unfocused eyes fixed on the light, and she winced as his hand tightened around her wrist briefly before releasing it all together as if it were made of fire.

She reached up and removed her helmet, setting it aside and scooted cautiously closer to him.  He snarled briefly in response, the animalistic warning shifting to a low growl as Allura extended her hand toward him again.

“I… I think I can help,” she offered.  He recoiled further, flashes of panic rolling across his face, unbound and unhidden.

She grunted in frustration before throwing herself boldly at him, no longer caring if he struck or harmed her.

_I will **save** you._   At any cost.

Her palm splayed flat on his chest and the ear-shattering, terrorized cry that erupted from him broke her.  Tears ran unchecked down her cheek as her palm regained the blue aura.  As the Life Force pulsing through her with the knowledge of the Sages of Oriande, she felt the whispers of paranoia in her mind weaken.

She smiled, her determination renewed.  The light engulfed her entire frame before shrouding his, his body shaking and trembling beneath her touch.  She drew herself closer and pressed her other hand to his shoulder, deepening the connection between them.

Withdrawing her hands, she fumbled with her gloves in an effort to make a better connection.  It was all the room Lotor needed.  He lunged at her with a growl, pinning her body to the floor.  Allura cried out in surprise as he hissed in her face.

Abandoning her fear, Allura reached up and grasped both his cheeks between her bare palms and held on tightly.  The surge of Life flashed between them, the connection quicker and more intense from the intimate contact.

His hold on her shoulders softened marginally and without warning he leaned over and kissed her.

_Hard._

Their first kiss had been soft and chaste, tentative and gentle, but this moment between them, coupled and amplified by the quintessence and the healing energy rocking between them was anything but.

It was rough and wicked, needy and desperate.

His claws dug into her sides as he drew her closer, eliciting a gentle mewl from the back of her throat before she realized it.

A flash of fang nipped at her bottom lip and as she gasped, his tongue drove sharply past her lips, aching and thirsty.

In her fevered haze, Allura nearly forgot her mission and her hands slid down his arms, pulling him still closer.  As their bond intensified, as did the healing connection.  Allura could see the haunted shadows flickering from his gaze, the taut lines in his skin softening.

Despite the lack of skin contact as her palms rested on his shoulders, she could feel the arcing energy between their lips.  She gasped for air, tilting her head back for a reprieve and he fumbled at the clasp on her flight suit, his lips locking onto her throat.

“Lotor,” she mumbled weakly, every nerve in her body feeling the stimulation from his touches.  Hints of trepidation threaded her blood as she recognized how dangerous the man was over her, but even as his fangs brushed her skin, molten light pooled between her legs and she _ached_.

As he grappled with her armor, she reached for him to do the same.  Her mind swirled with a headiness that matched the fog of quintessence around them, the healing light only growing brighter.

As she fumbled with the latch holding his shields together, he growled briefly before pinning her hands to her sides, quick to abandon his efforts at her own flight suit.  Allura’s eyes widened as she stared up at him, her throat catching.  His hair was nearly as wild as his eyes, floating around them both, his breathing ragged and caught.  Buried deep behind the utter madness, she recognized the core – _fear_.

“You don’t want to let me touch you,” she whispered, her own chest heaving from the exertion of wrestling against his titanic strength.

“Never again,” his graveled voice replied dangerously.  “No one.  Ever.  Again.”

“Why,” she begged, summoning as much of her strength as she could to flip their positions.  She launched him off her with the flex of her strength, catching him by surprise.  He released another rough growl as they slid across the floor, his fingers curling tighter around her wrists.

The cyan hue between them dimmed with their bodily distance.  Her thighs tightened about his hips and she struggled to keep contact with him, afraid if he slipped from her entirely he would be lost to the quintessence field.

“Can’t trust… never trust,” he muttered wildly.

“Curse you,” she murmured, wretching her wrists free from his grasp.  His strength bucked wildly beneath her but Allura doubled down, clinging to his frame with only the muscles in her thighs. She grasped at the clasps to her own flight suit and with little modesty she pulled it open to her waist.

She popped the plates off her arms efficiently, pausing to grapple with her balance when he jerked again beneath her.  She gritted her teeth and once her arms were completely free from the suit, she reached for him, pausing only as his face contorted with unadulterated terror.

“I’m trying to help you!”  Her frustration exploded, her anger hot as she glared at him.  Allura had never felt such fierce fury running through her and it honed precisely on the madman beneath her. “I’m trying to _save_ you!”

“I never asked for any of that!  I never _wanted_ any of that!”  His voice cracked as he screamed back.  “I never wanted you to hurt me!”

Allura’s eyes widened as her heart dropped into the very pit of her stomach, her wrath evaporating immediately.

“ _You’re_ the one that’s no better than Zarkon,” he continued to growl.  Allura’s blood felt like ice as she sat, completely frozen, over his form.

“The quintessence,” she murmured, her eyes glancing around the cockpit suddenly.  The misty swirl clouded them both, the healing aura gone.  The two of them were alone, surrounding by a medium amplifying their base instincts on a galactic level.  Her eyes snapped back to his.

“You’re right.”

Lotor’s trembling form stilled and for just a passing tick, he appeared to calm marginally as Allura spoke.  His eyes that rapidly bounced all around slid back to her, seemingly able to focus for the first time.

“You’re absolutely right,” she continued.  “I…  I was afraid.  And I was _wrong_.  And I’m sorry.  I’m here now because I don’t…” she paused, her voice catching in her throat as tears flooded the corners of her eyes once more.  “I’m here now because you’re here.  I don’t want to be out there if you aren’t…”

It felt as time careened to a halt in the web between realities.  Any possibility existed in any direction, and the only one she found herself interested in was right before her.

“Please,” she encouraged, letting her arms hover in the air above him, watching his contorted expression, her heart sundering anew as she realized what precisely she was looking at.  He said nothing but continued to regard her with hostile defense.

Only the ragged sounds of his breathing echoed in the still ship.  Allura exhaled with determination and reached for him again.

Lotor flinched _violently_ , nearly throwing her from his body.  Allura pitched forward, desperate to maintain contact with him as the Oriande energy flooded across her skin again.  Her chest fell against his, her hands caging his face and crushing her lips to his with little regard to her own safety.

The Alchemist was determined to keep as much physical contact between them as she could, the brilliant glow enveloping them once more.  With her embrace, the heat edged between them once more and his tension diminished marginally.

“Please, let me touch you,” she murmured against his lips, earning a needy growl from him.  She was wary to take his armor from him herself – not after the last spasm of fear.  He gave no hint of acquiescence, and when she tentatively slid a hand from his cheek, the growl that rumbled in his chest stilled her advance, affirming her suspicions.

Lotor’s firm grip on her hips softened slightly when she returned her palm to his face, taking as much advantage of the touch as she could.  Allura allowed her magic to seep deep into his being, and she felt such turmoil and chaos within his very core.  Her strength could only scratch at the surface, but it seemed to be enough to pull him from the brink of insanity, albeit only marginally.

She gasped against his lips when his palms pressed against her bare waist, slipping through the unzipped flight suit.  Despite his pain and rage, he seemed almost… _hesitant._

Allura exhaled and bowed her head, leaning back to recalibrate.  She could feel the rising panic inside her mind, the urge to move quickly, that time was dwindling.  _Quintessence._ The reminder of the impulse field around them forced her to calm herself.

Pressure and force were _not_ the answer.

“It’s _alchemy_!”

Her eyes popped wide open as a realization struck her.  Lotor stilled at the sudden outburst, his eyes narrowing at the loud noise that left her lips and his grip tightened apprehensively on her skin.  Allura was quick to realize her mistake.

“It’s alright,” she quickly dropped her voice to a more soothing tone, her heart hammering in her chest.  “I think I now understand,” she murmured, more to herself than him.  The pressure against her skin lessened slightly as she hummed.

With elegantly, painfully slow movement, Allura unwrapped her thighs from his hips and slowly slid to the floor beside him.  Lotor’s hands remained attached to her waist and as she moved, he followed.

Languidly, their positions inverted until the mad emperor was settled fully on top of her, once more pinning her frame to the floor.  Allura exhaled nervously before smiling up at him gently.

Panic flourished in her throat as her heart raced, but she did not yield to the urgency.

“It’s just equivalent exchange,” she explained gently.  Her breath caught in her throat when he leaned over her suddenly, moving his palms from her skin to either side of her face, his nose mere inches from her own.  The wild, untempered look on his face drew a whimper from her throat.

“I wish to save you.  Therefore… I… _I give myself_.”

He stilled, the first breath of calmness passing between them and Allura clamped her eyes shut, bracing for his reaction.  Adrenaline and fear coursed through her, pulsing through her mind and hammering through her heart.

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

His voice came in rough and ragged, his lips brushing against her earlobe as he hovered over her frame.  The tone wasn’t entirely threatening, but the implication behind it left her unsettled.

_He’s still furious_ , she realized.

Allura opened her eyes slowly to find him just a breath from her flesh, his eyes softer than they had been but the frozen cruelty still lingered.  She could only nod in response.

She cried out in alarm when his hand slammed into the floor beside her head, the force of it vibrating through her body, but Allura didn’t move.  Her eyes stayed locked in his, easily reading the war inside his mind as the quintessence overloaded his senses.

“You didn’t flinch,” he commented.  She shook her head resolutely, continuing to hold his gaze.

“If…” she exhaled, her bottom lip trembling as she fractured slightly.  Teardrops budded in the corners of her eyes but she refused to back down.  “If breaking me will save you… do what you must.  I came back for you.  I sent Blue away, I don’t intend to leave you, not now, not ever again,” she vowed.  “I-”

Allura didn’t get another word out before his lips took hers with a primal urgency fueled by need.  Once more their tongues coupled in an uncontrolled frenzy, but Allura forced her body to remain soft beneath him.

Every fiber of her being and every cell of her body begged her fingers to grab his hair and pull him closer, to peel away his armor and touch him – but she knew that she could not.  The most liberty she allowed herself was to return his fervor, eagerly offering anything he wished.

Allura gasped against him, her body spasming slightly as his hands grasped at her waist before deftly skirting up her ribs and firmly collecting her breasts.  The gesture was rough at first, but softened quickly to gentle, light touches, drawing a whimper from her throat as her fingers curled into fists.

His lips left hers and skirted lightly across her cheek, pausing to press against the crescent beside her eye before dipping to her lobe.

“You won’t touch me,” he murmured against her ear, his warm breath fanning across her throat and through her hair.

“I-” Her words were cut short as her back arched off the floor toward him when he pinched her pert nipples gently.  Releasing the tension, Allura exhaled weakly, slowly sinking to the steel behind her back.

“You were saying,” he nuzzled his lips against her throat.

“I won’t….” she released a shaky breath when the tips of his fangs dusted gently along her throat.  “…until you ask me to,” she finished at last, quivering beneath him.

Lotor stilled and pulled back to regard the flushed woman beneath him.  Allura watched him apprehensively, despite the heat and need between her thighs, she studied his expression for any trace or remnant of the man she once knew.

_There._

Beyond the jaded lies, the shadows and the pain.

She could see the quivering intensity of both his need and intellect.

“Only once you ask,” she promised.

She watched as the hurt flickered behind the icy gaze as silence stretched between them, nearly as infinite as the field outside.

A second.

A breath.

_An eternity._

“Touch me,” he commanded, his voice rough with desire as he surrendered to the quintessence and yielded to her promise of salvation.

Allura needed no further urging as she thrust her hands into his hair and pulled him closer, meshing her lips once more with his.  His clawed digits grappled with her suit, thrusting it fully past her hips.

The princess was more than pleased to assist in kicking it off as her hands trailed from his face to his chest, her fingers plying the plates from his armor piece by piece.  He growled against her as her palms unhinged the protective barrier, but he did not stop her this time.

The forcefield around his body fell away by her ministrations, and the gentle, cyan hue flared around them once more when her palms came to rest flush against his own suit.

As she knocked away the bulwark, her fingers grasped at the clasp holding his suit closed, and in an elegant drag, she opened it to his abdomen.

Lotor growled, tearing his lips from hers just long enough to plant a sharp nip to her earlobe.  Allura’s palms splayed flat against his smooth chest and she allowed the connection between them to blossom.  Bubbling across the surface of her skin and threading down to the very core of her being, the alchemy flourished.

The map of a man before her was desolate and shattered – rampant filaments of energy coiled chaotically.  Lust, longing, pain, treachery, desolation and hatred obscured the very center of his being, masking it from her intention.

What should have been a detailed map from the astral body to the soul was only a tempest of fury and pain.

She exhaled, determined to unravel the overloaded ethereal storm before her.  Teeth brushed over her jaw and she released a soft murmur, her attention drawn back to the physical plane.  Somewhere in the haze of her metaphysical analysis, Lotor had finished peeling away his undersuit.

His powerful form hovered over her as he settled between her thighs, his palm splayed wide on her stomach, sliding up her ribs with an aggravating slowness, his nails trailing along her skin as he did so.  Lotor’s lips curled into a grin against her throat as she squirmed, but he held her beneath him.

His teeth tugged at her earlobe and her back arched off the floor toward him in response. 

_Stars_ , how her body responded.  He barely touched her and she was ready to come apart, prickles of anticipation running along her skin, her bones vibrating with intensity and untempered energy.

“May I?”

His words hung in the air and Allura closed her eyes, exhaling into the void around them.

“ _Please._ ”

The lines between body and _other_ blurred dangerously in the space between realities.  Allura could feel his touch, but she could sense his _thought_ as well.  Spirit mingled with soul and body melded with mind as he gently consumed her form, deftly entombing himself in all that she was, both physical and metaphysical.

Entirely claimed, she lay beneath him, gasping to recover her breath as he filled her fully.  Neither moved at first and Allura’s fingers flexed on his chest, the vibrant energy bands weaving between them with the same headiness the two warriors shared within each other.

Lotor was the first to break the stillness with a groan against her, gently withdrawing slowly before moving against her once more, eliciting a soft cry of decadence from Allura, her back arching to meet him again.

With each surge into her body, she pressed further into his by extension.  What was once a cloud of torment dissipated into a latticed network of bonds and binds.  Each emotion, every thought, all intricately woven through themselves, circling around a single, glistening core of light. _A soul._

Her temperature rose and Allura was nearly certain she would combust beneath the electrical surges permeating her body.  Her focus flickered from the physical plane – she flushed heat as he consumed her – to the astral plane as she encompassed him, in turn. Allura’s ethereal frame wove through his, separating the strands of hatred and pain, loss and need.  Her aura wrapped protectively around and _through_ him, yielding safety and shields, adoration and absolution.

Tendrils laced her core, threatening to erupt across her veins as her energy touched his center, in turn.  She reached for him.

“Come back to me,” she murmured against his temple, her fingers tight through his wild hair.  His lips remained latched on her throat.  Their bodies surged in perfect rhythm, riding the amplification of the quintessence field.

He growled in response against her skin, his nails digging against her flesh as he drew her even closer.

“I cannot do this without you.”  Her fingers curled tighter in his hair, clutching him to her.  Allura’s mind had stopped processing as their bodies entangled, the heat and desire pulsing between them driving out any form of logical coherence.

No longer could the alchemist unravel the tangled net of chaos within the man over her, the most she could do as the blue light illuminated the cockpit was clutch him desperately and pray to whatever Sage in Oriande might still hear her.

_Save him._

“Please,” she murmured before her panted whisper gave way to a soul-rendering cry, her body shattering with his.  The building heat and tension erupted simultaneously, the waves slamming through her.

Between gasping breaths, she whimpered against him, the force of her climax rocking through her, amplified by the field about them.  Allura noticed swiftly that she wasn’t alone.  Lotor’s ragged breathing matched the rolling spasms through his body as well.

A low, keening noise echoed around them, and Allura realized she was the one making it.  She paused, inhaling deeply as the pulsations slowly seemed to diminish, leaving her in a hazy bliss, the Emperor still fully within her.

Weakly, she opened her eyes and quickly gasped.

Lotor’s body in her arms shimmered with the same cyan hue her palms did, his entire form glowing with ancient, Altean alchemy.  Even his _marks_ flared.

“Lotor?”  She whispered, worriedly.

Slowly, his eyelids raised and he regarded her intently.  The entirety of his sclera radiated the same light.  Allura’s breath caught in her throat as she stared into a mirror – the magic of her own people reflected back at her through him.

Hesitantly, she reached for him, her fingertips brushing his cheek.  Lotor’s eyelids draped closed and in a swift movement, he _collapsed._

Allura panicked as the full weight of him settled on her, his cheek resting against her chest.  She froze at the subtle vibrations she felt beneath her fingertips.  Not knowing what else she could do for him, she dusted her hands through his hair lightly as the man broke in her arms, his gentle trembles the only indication of his weeping.

“Allura,” he whispered as he caught his breath.

“Everything will be fine,” she murmured against him, watching the effulgence of their inner radiance mirror around them within the boundless quintessence.

“We need…” He paused, gasping for breath.  “We need to leave this place, the field is…” He froze as he caught her somber expression and the memories from his overloaded state flickered back.  “You sent Blue away,” he recalled with mounting horror.

“I never planned to leave you here.”

He cursed sharply and carefully rose up, slipping from her gently before pacing around, pausing at the interface of the pilot’s chair.  He flipped through the flickering, static screens and his brow furrowed deeper with each readout.

Allura watched him warmly as she leisurely rose into a sitting position, her heart swelling at the sight of the man she recognized and knew once more.  The princess shook her head once, a bemused smile gracing her lips as she pushed to her feet.

“It’s completely overloaded.  Perhaps your alchemy can restart it; perhaps we can get the ship working and get out of-”

He paused at the sound of a zip and looked over as Allura finished closing her flight suit, flipping her hair out over the collar.  Demurely, she handed him his.

“Perhaps we should start with these,” she suggested coyly.  He blinked at the undersuit and discreetly stood up, turning his back to her shyly while he dressed.

“I’ll see what I can do,” she added, settling into the pilot’s seat while he attended to his wardrobe.

“Allura,” he turned to face her suddenly as he drew the zipper closed.  “Please be careful,” he urged, watching as her fingers curled around the controls.  She tossed him a wry smile.

“I’m afraid we don’t get that luxury, it’s sort of a… a one-shot deal here,” she explained.  “We either get out… or we don’t.”  She closed her eyes and leaned over the dash, focusing on that pinprick of power in the very center of her being.  The molten sphere of energy that tied her to her realm – and all others – throbbed, and like a waterfall, the warmth pooled out from her, dancing across her skin and to her fingertips.  It was weak; most of her inner strength had been left within Lotor, but she still had a little left to give.

The illumination in the cockpit was near blinding and forced Lotor to shield his eyes as she pooled all her remaining will.  Without warning, the light vanished again and Allura gasped.

“Allura?”  Lotor was at her side in a moment, his palm closing over her shoulder.  She glanced up at him slowly, a sad expression on her face.  Mutely, she shook her head.

“I… I cannot.  The quintessence is too strong, it’s overloading any work I try and do… if we could isolate the ship from the quintessence, I could repair it once the excess was siphoned off, but… here… I cannot.  ...I’m so sorry.”

She reached for him and touched his cheeks, his arms snaking around her waist and pulling her close as she rose to her toes.

“This was my doing,” he murmured.  “You should have never come back for me;  you would be safe from this Hell.”

“No,” she admonished, leaning up to kiss him gently on the lips.  “The only Hell for me was being away from you.  Perhaps, in the end, we were doomed to repeat what our parents did, after all.  But I’d rather do it with you than avoid it alone.”  She brushed his hair from in front of his eyes.

“I only tried to help the others; I… I know how it must look.  It was all I knew how-”

She silenced him with another peck to the lips.

“I do not know how long it will take the field to consume us, but I’d rather spend the time left in happiness.”

He gathered her close and pulled her into his lap as he settled in the pilot’s seat.

“I really was just like him,” he murmured against her forehead, watching the static on the panels over her shoulder.

“No,” she disagreed again.  “I was so very, very wrong, and I can never unsay those words no matter how I beg the Sages, and I am _so_ sorry.”  Allura nestled in closer, letting her fingertips brush through his tussled hair.

“I-”  Lotor and Allura both stilled as static crackled across the panel.

_“Allura?  Do you-”_

Before Lotor could move, Allura slammed her palm down on the instrument.

“Keith?  Great stars, is that you?”

Static answered her hail and her wide eyes glanced around the rift.

_“-copy?”_

“I’m here, Keith, are you in the rift?”

Both Lotor and Allura held their breath, eyes locked on the flickering lights as only interference came in.  Slowly she turned to look up at him and his arms only tightened around her protectively.

“Do you think…?”

“I doubt they would leave you here,” he admitted, a thread of hope in his voice.

“I had hoped they would – it’s why I sent Blue back,” she murmured.  “Perhaps it’s a remnant of an old transmission? Who knows how communication works here.  It could-”

Lotor’s curse cut her off as the entire ship rocked sideways.  His fingers dug into her sides, steadying her from being flung from his lap to the floor.

“Allura? Do you copy? Are you there?”  The signal came through crystal-clear as the mouth of Black Lion closed around Sincline’s arm, solidifying their connection.  Tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes as relief swelled unerringly through her chest.

“Yes Keith, _we’re_ here.  And… we’re ready to come home.  Little help?”

“Both…?”

“Indeed,” Lotor murmured, resting his nose against Allura’s temple.  “And I have quite the story to tell you, if you’ll hear it.”

“That is the least we can do for you, Lotor.  Let’s get you guys home,” he said as the feed cut out.  Black’s engines blasted and Sincline rocked gently while being towed from the rift.

“You heard him,” she murmured, turning to face him fully in the seat.  “We’re going _home_.”

Lotor had no words to offer the shimmering soul before him so he expressed his emotion in the only way he could fathom: he sealed her lips with a blinding kiss, laden deep with promise.


End file.
